Bubu Palo is appealing to the Iowa Board of Regents to reverse Iowa State University President Steven Leath’s decision to remove him from the men’s basketball program, Palo told the Ames Tribune late Friday in a text message.

ISU announced Aug. 31 that Palo would “no longer be a member of its men’s basketball team” after an appeal of the university’s Office of Judicial Affairs initial decision that Palo was not in violation of the school’s code of conduct.

Palo was first indefinitely suspended from the ISU men’s basketball team in September 2012 after Story County prosecutors charged him with second-degree sexual abuse stemming from an incident in May of that year.

Charges were dropped in January at the request of prosecutors, and Palo was immediately reinstated to the Cyclones after a 17-game suspension. Palo was also found innocent of a student code of conduct violation by ISU’s Office of Judicial Affairs, according to the school.

That decision, though, was appealed to and overturned by Leath, who made the decision to remove Palo from the men’s basketball team, ISU executive director of university relations John McCarroll told the Ames Tribune in an email last month.

“I am appealing the decision,” Palo wrote in a text message to the Ames Tribune on Friday.

ISU’s statement announcing Leath’s decision Aug. 31 said the school would have no further comment, citing student privacy laws.

Palo has remained a student at ISU following Leath’s decision.

The Iowa Board of Regents next meet Wednesday and Thursday at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

According to the Iowa State student disciplinary regulations (code of conduct), a final decision by the Board of Regents in an appeals process can be reviewed by an Iowa district court.

After the suspension was lifted in January, Palo, a 2009 Ames High School graduate, went on to average 2.8 points and 12.5 minutes per game for ISU, which advanced to the Round of 32 in the NCAA tournament.

“I did everything right,” Palo said after being reinstated. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just glad the truth has finally come out.”

Palo’s appeal first came to the attention of to the Ames Tribune in an email that appears to have been sent from Board of Regents general counsel Thomas Evans to Ames resident Ev Cochrane.

“…Mr. Palo’s case has been appealed to the Board of Regents for review and final agency determination,” reads an email provided by Cochrane to the Ames Tribune that appears to have been sent from the iastate.edu address of Board of Regents general counsel Thomas Evans to Cochrane.

Evans had no comment regarding a possible appeal by Palo or the email when reached by phone by the Ames Tribune on Friday afternoon. Board of Regents communications director Sheila Koppin also declined to comment.

The email to Cochrane was in response to Cochrane’s having emailed the Board of Regents in support of Palo earlier this month.

ISU coach Fred Hoiberg did not immediately return a phone call and text message left by the Ames Tribune Friday night. He declined to comment on a potential Palo appeal at the team’s media day last week.

Rules for posting comments

Comments posted below are from readers. In no way do they represent the view of Stephens Media LLC or this newspaper. This is a public forum.

Comments may be monitored for inappropriate content but the newspaper is under no obligation to do so. Comment posters are solely responsible under the Communications Decency Act for comments posted on this Web site. Stephens Media LLC is not liable for messages from third parties.

IP and email addresses of persons who post are not treated as confidential records and will be disclosed in response to valid legal process.

Do not post:

Potentially libelous statements or damaging innuendo.

Obscene, explicit, or racist language.

Copyrighted materials of any sort without the express permission of the copyright holder.

Personal attacks, insults or threats.

The use of another person's real name to disguise your identity.

Comments unrelated to the story.

If you believe that a commenter has not followed these guidelines, please click the FLAG icon below the comment.